'Rahmbo' takes Washington

[katty]

more:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910057970&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

'Rahmbo' takes Washington
By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK - On Rosh Hashana, Rahm Emanuel called his rabbi with a question: Could he violate the holiday to sit in on a conference call about the $700 billion bank bailout package that congressional Democrats were fiercely trying to revive?

-- Pictures of the week It didn't take long for Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who heads Emanuel's modern Orthodox congregation in suburban Chicago, to give him an answer.

"I told him it was my halachic opinion that the financial system was on the point of failing and it could be a disaster, and this was a matter of life and death, to get this passed, as long as the violation was kept to a minimum," Lopatin told The Jerusalem Post.

"This is modern Orthodoxy at work - committed to Judaism, but committed to making it a better world," Lopatin said.

Emanuel to be Obama's chief of staff
As Democratic officials confirmed Thursday that Emanuel, 49, had accepted the job of chief of staff in US President-elect Barack Obama's new administration, friends and colleagues from Chicago to Washington described him to the Post as a dauntless political warrior and peerless tactician who had cemented his reputation as a consummate Washington general with his leadership of the Democrats' congressional takeover in 2006.

"He tends to be more pragmatic than ideological - as a leader of the party, he's been more focused on the practical aspects of moving the agenda forward," said Richard Foltin, legislative director for the American Jewish Committee's Washington office, who first met Emanuel during his stint as an adviser in president Bill Clinton's administration.
Yet Emanuel was also described as a fiercely principled Jew and supporter of Israel, where his pediatrician father, Benjamin, was born and volunteered for the Irgun before moving to America.

[monmouth]

1. The more I hear about Emanuel the more I like him. I like tough,

smart and good looking...I'm shallow that way. Also, a nice Jewish boy, it doesn't get better than that...

[Tempest]

3. His ties to the Freddie Mac scandal is going to give ammo to the rightwing

I don't approve of the pick, but he is a "get-er-done" kind of guy.

[Tarc]

5. Ammo's of no use if you don't have solid ground to fire from

The GOP is in a position of extreme weakness now. They've lost the bully pulpit of the presidency, they've lost the corporate media. It'll be like getting hit with spitballs.

[dynasaw]

2. I Like the Fact

he's a former ballet dancer. Still has the ballet dancer's posture and stance. He could probably still kick, leap and spin. :evilgrin:

[tkayj]

4. He's sexy-intelligent and effective.

Nothing hotter than a bunch of intelligent men and women (although I don't find the women as sexy) running our country.

[Redneck Socialist]

6. "...with his leadership of the Democrats' congressional takeover in 2006. "

Yeah, Howard Dean had nothing to do with that. :eyes: